Reunited Solo

September 1, 2020
Great Hall
Sorting Ceremony

The school year had officially began. Katrina Walker was a third year now. It felt so good to be back at school. She would wake up every morning in the same bed. She would talk every day to the same people. There was so much going on and Katrina’s expression was one of contentment. It was going to be a great year, she just knew it.

Katrina found a seat amongst the red sea of lions. Conversations of excitement and homesickness layered on top of one another until the entire room was crowded with noise and people. It was nice and familiar to be with her family. Katrina drew her wand out of her cloak pocket and smiled at it, running her fingers down the now usable tool of magic. She could faintly hear some boys yelling about who was braver and a couple of girls on the other side of her were gossiping about the last person to jump off the high dive at their summer party. It was home, as chaotic and unusual as it seemed.

The room silenced as the proceedings began. Katrina half-listened and half-scanned the crowds. She found several familiar faces around her table and the other tables. A few times Katrina waved, only catching the eye of a few. Memories of the past two years at Hogwarts crowded her mind. She knew the rules, after getting something like detention last year, she had made a point to practically memorize the handbook, so she really only half listened.

The Sorting Ceremony started at some point while Katrina was lost in her thoughts. For a brief moment, Katrina realized that this would have been the year that Liam would have come to school, if he was still alive that is. In order to hide her emotions and keep them from flowing out, Katrina dissociated herself temporarily from reality. It was a coping mechanism that wasn’t necessarily great, but it worked. This year she was going to be better than last year.

Time dragged on. As each student was sorted, the tables would erupt in applause. After a while, Katrina joined in for each Gryffindor. She would stand and cheer along with everyone else at the table. One of them was the girl she had met this summer, Katrina cheered extra loud for her. There were a lot of students. This felt so much longer than last year.

“Walker, Liam”

The room went silent. Well, at least to Katrina it did. She could hear ringing in her left ear. Her heart raced through her veins. It-It couldn’t be. Liam was dead. She was just imagining it. But then, a first year boy entered the stage. He had unruly blond hair that didn’t look familiar. He looked so old, more mature. But he had the same light green eyes and charming, mischievous smile. The room was silent, Katrina felt so dizzy that she might fall over out of the bench. Then the noise rushed back as the hat called out.

“Gryffindor”

The table around her erupted in cheers and this time, Katrina was stone still. She didn’t clap or smile or stand up. She sat there with wide teary eyes and her mouth hanging open. He had the biggest smile on his face, but his eyes were searching. Then his gaze met Katrina’s.

“Kitty Kat?”

She couldn’t hear the words, but he mouthed them all the same. Liam began to run, sprinting past everyone cheering and straight toward her. This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. But then Liam was right in front of her, he was a bit blurry from the tears in her eyes.

“Liam?”

Her voice was tentative and soft. With his nod, Katrina stood from the seat and engulfed him in a hug. She was pretty sure both of them were crying. They clung to each other through the next sorting and she couldn’t help the shocked tears that were about to fall. Katrina was careful to wipe them away before he could see.

“Kat, you look so… so different,” his voice was so much older than she remembered. It had a depth that wasn’t there before.

“You too, your hair,” Katrina murmured.

“Yours too,”

“I thought you were dead!”

“I’m sorry, I’m so, so sorry. I have a lot to tell you,”

“You sure do,”

The rest of the proceedings were fuzzy for Katrina. She couldn’t believe this was real. She kept waiting to wake up. But she never did. It wasn’t long before the tables were covered in food. Liam yelped with shock.

“Yeah, you get used to it,” Katrina joked, nudging him with her shoulder.

“Because I’ll totally get used to things appearing out of thin air,”

“Just wait until classes start,”

Liam fully gorged himself all though dinner. It made talking a bit difficult, so Katrina simply sat there with her mind swimming with the fact that Liam was still alive. She had never thought about the fact that he could still be alive and well, well, she had thought of it, but only to keep herself from breaking down completely. But he was there, beside her as good as ever. Katrina kept thinking it was all a dream.

After a while, Liam slowed down. Desserts would come soon. Katrina wanted to ask him so many things, but she was just so surprised about it all. Might as well ask while his face wasn’t stuffed with food.

“I thought you were dead,” Katrina repeated her comment from earlier. Voice cracking with pain and two years of sadness and mourning. “Are Mom and Dad alive too?” That was the first question that came to her mind. If they were still alive, that would change everything. But she knew the answer. She had seen their ashes sprinkled at the funeral, “Why weren’t you at the funeral?” Katrina waited a beat, “And who have you been staying with? Please don’t tell me you have been staying with our gits for family? I mean—not so nice family,” Katrina stopped herself so she wouldn’t keep blabbering.

Liam’s eyes were turned down. “No, mommy and daddy died in the fire,” he paused, happy emotions flipped to the sadness Katrina knew all too well, “It was the middle of the night. The fire alarms didn’t turn on. I grabbed Spoof and ran down the hallway to go out the glass door.” He stopped looking up at Katrina with troubled eyes, “Mommy and Daddy went out the front, when they didn’t see me, they raced back in. Just as the house collapsed. The firemen were late, but I didn’t see them put out the fire because the social people were already there. I got put in a car while they asked me a bunch of questions and I was with a foster family before the sun rose.” He said all of this with a flat voice.

“Then the Spriggs came that morning. They were supposed to be our guardians because that is what Mommy and Daddy said in their dying letter—er, wish? Will? They talked to the social people and then I went with them. I have been there ever since.” He looked up, “I found your letters a few days ago. They were in Papa—Neil Spriggs’ office, but he never goes in there since he’s sick. I’m so sorry Kitty Kat, I wanted to respond but Harbor, their owl, didn’t come back from Hogwarts,”

Liam looked at Katrina as if he was memorizing her face, remembering his older sister. “That was the day that I got my acceptance letter,” His expression cracked into a grin. “And now I’m here with you!”

Katrina matched his smile, hiding everything that she was feeling. This was all new news to her. Her mind was working and desperately trying to catalogue everything he had just said. He was alive. Their parents had died searching for him. He remembered Spoof Katrina’s stuffed dragon. He had been with a foster family too. He had a home. She had a home. He had read her letters. He had somehow made it through all of the mourning Katrina had been struggling with for the past two years.

Katrina ate a bit more to make a point to Liam that she did eat. It felt unfamiliar setting an example. It had been such a long two years without her best friend. But now, Liam was here. He was right here. Spontaneously, Katrina wrapped her arm around Liam’s waist and pulled him in for a side hug. He squirmed out of it, giving his older sister a side look of amusement with underlined confusion.

All along, Liam had known Katrina was alive. But she hadn’t known he was. That was the reason he had thrived and she had barely held on.

“So, what have you been up to?” Katrina said once he had slowed his scarfing of the desserts. It had been so long since she had seen him, she didn’t know if anything had changed. “Besides the hair I mean,” Katrina winked at him playfully.

“Um, not much. I have been going to school, like normal I guess. But I’m in a different school since I’m with the G-parents. I’ve made a bunch of friends. There’s Freddie, he’s pretty cool. He has this new iphone that he brings everywhere and a cool headset thing that you can put on and everything looks 3d. He calls it virtual reality. And there’s J-Dog, his real name is James, but no one calls him that. J-Dog is like crazy good with the guitar. Oh, I’m doing band. Drums, as usual. Then there’s Tom and BT and Shorty and Tristan. We are always getting in detention. We’ve made it a competition, or we did the last two months of school to see who could get in trouble more. I got detention three times, I put a whoopie cushion under my math teacher’s chair, was caught emptying the trash cans on the green, and I spraypainted my locker bright orange.”

Katrina couldn’t believe how much she had missed. Liam kept going on about his grades still being great and band, but she started to tune him out a bit. His life had kept going. Without her. Sure, her life had continued as well, but it was sort of like nothing had changed for him. Katrina realized that he had stopped talking and turned to him.

“Were you listening? I just asked you what you have been up to,”

“Oh sorry, I was just thinking. Um, well. I am a part of two clubs. The Scavenger Hunt Club, that I made and run and do. Actually, the next hunt is tomorrow morning if you want to come along. And I am a member of the SWAG club. Spells Wands and Games, its pretty fun too. Then there’s quidditch, I don’t play, but a few of my friends do so I’ve been to a couple games.” That last part was a lie, Katrina had only been to one game. Liam look quizzically at her and Katrina realized that he didn’t know what Quidditch was.

“Oh yeah, Quidditch is a sport you play on brooms. That fly. It’s sort of like expert hockey in the air, ish. You should watch practice, actually, I take that back, I don’t think you can. But you could go to the games. The season starts soon,”

“Anyway, I’ve made a few friends. There’s Bridget, a Slytherin. We met my first year in the library. We’ve been on a few adventures,” Katrina was careful to not mention that Bridget had seen Katrina in some of her low points. “Then there’s River the Ravenclaw and Jo the Gryffindor, we did a relay race together that was super fun. And there’s Pierre and Adonis and a bunch of others that I know,” Katrina was vague on purpose. Didn’t want him really asking about that. “Oh, also! I got a orange kitty named Boomerang. He’s upstairs in the Common Room most likely. He tends to wander around a lot and get into mischief.”

It was odd catching up. He already knew a lot from the letters, so she wasn’t sure what all he knew or remembered.

“Katrina?” Katrina snapped to attention, he never called her that, he only called her Kitty Kat or just Kat.

“What's wrong?”

“How have you really been?” There was an intensity in his gaze that lead Katrina to be a bit more open than she was planning on being.

“It’s been really hard. I lost Mom and Dad and you. I had to stay with a foster home. Magic is cool in all, but it’s pretty scary when its hard to make friends. My first year was super tough. But now, I’m doing a lot better,” Katrina hesitated, thinking that was enough worry for him to deal with. He was only 11 after all. “How have you been? Don’t lie to me, I still know you,” Katrina offered a small smile.

Liam raked his hands through his hair, a motion that made him seem a lot older than 11. “I may have known you were alive, but I didn’t have my older sister with me. I flunked a science test and I couldn’t go to you for help. When I fractured my ankle and had crutches for a few weeks, there was no one to scare the bullies away. I really missed you Kat.”

Liam reached out for a hug and Katrina did so. Pretending not to notice that he was crying. “Hey, hey, I’m here now, that’s all that matters,” The rest of dinner, Katrina had her arm wrapped around her little brother. It felt so good to be with him again. When he was called by the prefects to go back to his new room, he seemed just as young and excited as he was when she left him. But this time, she was going to be able to see him again. Katrina and Liam were reunited and stronger together. They could make it through this together.